chris and john join us now. gentlemen, thanks so much for being here. we appreciate. >> thank you. >> i have to ask you were you confident? have you guys been involved in the fight in maryland for some time because we know this has been kicked around in the legislature for a while. >> we've been through it several times now where we've gone and we were testifying in support of the bill and, of course, we were also there when the bill was stowed away a couple times and then finally we made it through the house, through the senate and made it on to the governor's desk and got signed into law and then we knew that we had another struggle and fight coming up when we had the referendum. we got that passed, too. >> shawn, were you confident that it would pass that, maryland voters would vote yes for gay marriage? >> i was a little bit scared truthfully. i was concerned that maryland would vote against it. there's a lot of conservatives, but, however, now that it's passed i'm thrilled. i'm so excited. >> let me ask you because opponents will still say marriage